Chapter 126
Chapter 126
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 126
Chapter Title: Travels (4)
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A few days later, one morning, Ouyang Jue decided to ask Nameless something that had been on his mind.
“Why is a martial artist of your caliber living in seclusion here instead of venturing out into the world?”
“It's a hassle.”
It was a simple, clear answer, just what one would expect from Nameless.
But Ouyang Jue couldn't shake the strange feeling.
If the Heavenly Martial Peak was a sect with such powerful martial arts, it surely would have been a major topic of discussion in the martial world.
Yet, not only Nameless but even the one who must have been his master were completely unknown.
Just another Taoist sect in Huguang.
When Ouyang Jue, finding this odd, asked again, Nameless gave him a look of surprise.
“I thought you were just some uneducated brute from the way you talk, but you've actually got a brain in your head.”
Nameless grinned and continued.
“In our Heavenly Martial Peak... once you inherit the internal energy from your master, you're forced to live in seclusion.”
“What?”
Ouyang Jue, startled by the completely unexpected words, asked again.
He stared intently at Nameless, wondering if it was a joke, but it wasn't.
A faint, mocking smile had already settled on Nameless's face.
“Sounds absurd, doesn't it? Having such powerful martial arts and being stuck living here.”
Ouyang Jue silently agreed, and a note of lamentation crept into Nameless's voice.
“The confirmed history of our Heavenly Martial Peak has been like this for two hundred years. We don't even know our founder. There's just a rule that we must descend when a 'certain time' comes.”
“A 'certain time'? Who decides that, and how?”
“My point exactly!”
As if a sudden surge of irritation overcame him, Nameless swung his fist upward.
*CRACK!*
With a single strike, the large boulder next to Nameless split and crumbled to the ground.
Despite this, Nameless's expression didn't change in the slightest.
He had revealed himself that he possessed eighty years of internal energy.
It was an accumulation of internal energy passed down from five predecessors to their successors.
Ouyang Jue, watching the rock crumble, asked.
“That's just the rule. Couldn't you just leave if you wanted to?”
“I heard there was a guy who thought that way a long time ago.”
Nameless's words made Ouyang Jue realize something instantly.
He had said the confirmed history of the Heavenly Martial Peak was two hundred years.
But the fact that only eighty years of internal energy were being passed down meant...
As Ouyang Jue's eyes narrowed, Nameless confirmed his thoughts with a smirk.
“The line was broken once. If it weren't for that fool, my body would have either exploded or I would have become an immortal by now.”
“Still, it's strange.”
Without asking for permission, Ouyang Jue placed his hand on Nameless's lower abdomen.
“It's common knowledge among all martial artists that transferring internal energy for even three generations is impossible. How could eighty years of internal energy be passed down through five generations?”
The history of the Heavenly Martial Peak was one thing, but their martial arts were something special.
To confirm this, Ouyang Jue focused his true energy into his fingertips.
He then felt a familiar energy residing in Nameless's lower dantian.
A clean, pure energy based on orthodox Taoist breathing techniques.
‘Come to think of it, if it was at least two hundred years ago... wasn't that when Wang Chongyang and the Seven Masters of Quanzhen were roaming the martial world?’
The timing overlaps with when He Daitong, the founder of the Mount Hua Sect, was active.
Normally, he would have just dismissed it.
But upon learning that this place, where the Omniscient One had brought him, had such a history, he couldn't help but be shocked.
Above all, it was suspicious.
Just as Ouyang Jue's eyes began to widen.
Nameless bared his teeth.
“Hey, now. Where do you get the nerve to touch your elder's body?”
As Nameless whipped his right hand like a whip to strike his acupoints, Ouyang Jue easily dodged by twisting the upper half of his body.
This was only possible because Nameless wasn't serious, but that didn't mean Ouyang Jue's reaction was slow.
“...You little punk, you dodged it.”
Nameless looked at Ouyang Jue, who had grown dazzlingly in the past few days, with a satisfied gaze.
As if climbing a mountain he already knew, Ouyang Jue's martial insight far exceeded Nameless's expectations.
When shown one move, he knew how to adapt it into three.
When shown the subtlety of a rippling wave with just half a step, he copied it perfectly.
Once, on a whim, Nameless had demonstrated some of the Heavenly Martial Peak's techniques, only to be astonished when Ouyang Jue immediately mimicked them.
‘Those eyes of his are especially strange.’
His ability to seemingly absorb every single movement was, without a doubt, the best Nameless had ever seen.
Just as Nameless was contemplating whether he should just keep Ouyang Jue here and make him his disciple, Ouyang Jue's lips parted.
“So, when did you get to know the Omniscient One?”
“...Hmm, back when I was young and inexperienced. I found myself in danger several times.”
Nameless scratched his cheek with a finger.
“I was clearly being polite, but those damn brats from the prestigious clans kept picking fights with me. So I beat them up a bit, and they gave me some nickname like 'Face-Breaking Demon Fist'. And so...”
Ouyang Jue guessed that Nameless had probably run his mouth.
The result was obvious.
“You were hunted.”
“Exactly!”
Nameless clapped his hands in agreement.
“Those cowardly bastards kept coming at me, so I had to beat them to death, one by one. One-on-one, you know? Even though I fought fair and square!”
Even though it was long in the past, Nameless snorted indignantly, as if still furious.
Ouyang Jue gave him a look of disbelief.
‘What did he expect after beating people to death?’
But since he couldn't say that out loud, Ouyang Jue reluctantly nodded.
“Who were they, exactly?”
“Those bastards from the Hebei Peng Clan!”
A fire seemed to light up in Nameless's eyes. But he quickly turned his head and let out a hot breath.
“Anyway... I almost died a few times because of them, and the Omniscient One helped me out each time. Maybe that's why I'm both touched and a little dumbfounded that he's come to see me now.”
“...”
At those words, Ouyang Jue pressed his lips together.
It wasn't because Nameless's words were strange.
Before arriving at Wulingyuan.
When he had asked if the man here was a barbarian, the Omniscient One had said this.
“He is a man strong enough to be ranked within the top five martial artists I have ever seen.”
But the time Nameless was talking about was from when he was far from strong, being chased by the Hebei Peng Clan.
He was nowhere near one of the top five.
Ouyang Jue wanted to ask Nameless if he remembered the Omniscient One's words, but he quickly shook his head.
‘Knowing his personality, he'll just get angry if I ask. If he starts throwing fists out of nowhere, the conversation will end.’
It was better to piece together the facts and deduce the truth.
Thinking this, Ouyang Jue came up with a plausible hypothesis.
‘When the Omniscient One first met Nameless, could it be that he foresaw that Nameless would become one of the top five strongest warriors?’
That's why the Omniscient One later persuaded Ouyang Jue to go to Zhangjiajie, telling him that Nameless was a formidable martial artist.
As if he had decided this would be the first stop.
Ouyang Jue's gaze sharpened.
Considering the Omniscient One's disposition, there was only one possible answer.
‘There was a reason for saving Nameless.’
“...So, did I just get help from the Omniscient One! Of course not, let me tell you how I crushed them later...”
Ouyang Jue watched Nameless, who had started boasting about himself, with a profound look in his eyes.
The Omniscient One was not a good Samaritan who saved just anyone.
Hadn't he caused all sorts of incidents in Meixian just to summon him?
And yet, the Omniscient One showed no guilt.
He was a man who never valued sentiment to begin with.
‘He'd rather value the fate he read in the heavens.’
As Ouyang Jue thought that far, it was as if lightning struck his mind.
The Omniscient One had lived for hundreds of years.
The Heavenly Martial Peak's history was at least two hundred years.
‘I don't know how old the Omniscient One is, but their timelines overlap by at least a hundred years!’
Furthermore, it was strange that the Omniscient One had helped Nameless, who was a nobody in the martial world, without expecting anything in return.
Ouyang Jue delved deeper than simple inference.
‘The Heavenly Martial Peak's law about descending when a "certain time" comes... could it be... related to the Eight Evils?’
Ouyang Jue looked down at the right hand that had touched Nameless's lower abdomen.
The energy he felt in his lower dantian was clearly not from a simple Taoist sect, but closer to orthodox Taoism.
It was a truly, no, a one-in-a-million assumption, but.
‘Could it be that Lü Dongbin, unable to eradicate all demons, left his will to the disciples he took in during his lifetime? And that's how the Heavenly Martial Peak was created.’
Whoever the founder of the Heavenly Martial Peak was, they were someone who restricted the actions of all their successors with an internal energy art.
If he had been a good person like Liu Zhangming or Bai Duanxian, he would never have done such a thing.
Taoism, after all, respected different paths.
Ouyang Jue broke out in a cold sweat without realizing it.
Barely managing to hide his shock, he looked at Nameless and asked.
“Nameless, if you don't mind, may I ask you something?”
“...Huh? Yeah?”
Nameless finally stopped talking and made a displeased face.
“Have you not been listening to a single word I've been saying?”
“My apologies.”
“Hmph... Right, an old man's boasting must be dreadfully boring for a young pup.”
Nameless, mocking Ouyang Jue's attitude, puffed out his chest and said.
“What are you curious about?”
“What is the name of the internal art taught at the Heavenly Martial Peak?”
“Why be so formal about a simple question?”
Nameless, chiding Ouyang Jue as if he found it absurd, answered casually.
“The Art of the Heavenly Escape and Mind's Journey.”
“...Heavenly Escape?!”
As Ouyang Jue asked back in shock, Nameless twisted one side of his lip.
“It has nothing to do with that Lü Dongbin you people revere, so don't even start.”
“...”
“Besides, we're a hermit sect, we don't get involved in the martial world, you know? So don't go blabbing about it outside... Hey, are you listening?”
*Poke, poke.*
Even as Nameless tapped his arm impatiently, Ouyang Jue couldn't answer.
Could this really be considered a coincidence?
Ouyang Jue's brow furrowed.
“I'm listening. So, that's enough.”
“You're the one who's not being appropriate, you brat. Your elder is talking, and you don't listen to a damn thing! Are you even more reckless than me?!”
“At least you seem to know that you're the reckless type.”
As Ouyang Jue retorted lightly, Nameless burst out laughing.
Then, as if remembering something, he quickly spoke.
“Ah, right. You said you were from the Mount Hua Sect. Can I ask you about someone's name?”
“I have a feeling this won't be about anything good, but go ahead.”
At that, Nameless rolled his eyes once as if trying to recall a memory.
“So... I think his name was, uh, Jin Mu-wol?”
Ouyang Jue let out a deep sigh at those words.
For Jin Mu-wol to pop up now of all times!
A curse escaped Ouyang Jue's lips.
“No, this is crazy... Just when I thought the pieces were starting to fit.”
“What pieces? I'm asking, is that bastard Jin Mu-wol alive?”
“How should I know!”
As Ouyang Jue, suddenly irritated, yelled back, Nameless also started to get angry.
“What do you mean, 'how should you know,' you son of a bitch! That crazy bastard Jin Mu-wol suddenly shoved a sword at me and asked if I was human!”
Saying that, Nameless grabbed the front of his robe with both hands and tore it open.
*Riiip!*
Beneath the torn fabric, a deep, ugly scar that had yet to heal was visible.
Nameless asked in a rough voice.
“So, is that bastard alive?”
Ouyang Jue debated whether he should actually answer that question.
But the answer came not from Ouyang Jue, but from the Omniscient One, who looked as if he had just woken up.
“If you mean Jin Mu-wol, he's dead.”
The Omniscient One's face was stiff, as if he had never expected things to turn out this way.